“My ambition? That’s easy: to help you achieve yours!” –  John Horton

This captures the heart of what you can expect while working with me. Your ambitions are important, to both of us.

My role as advisor has been given many names by my clients over the years – coach, confidant, counselor, trusted advisor, thinking partner, sparring partner, friend – and is about helping someone or something become better, even though we start at “good” or “successful.” I have always believed – even as a teenager – that this role was just “something I did to help people.” It still is.

My clients, like you, are busy and need someone who can listen, provide frank and respectful feedback, appropriate challenges, or insightful questions without judgment or an agenda, other than improving their business.

My approach is one of respect, appreciation and curiosity.

What you will gain from this?

  • You have a seasoned professional at your side, who respects you as a human being, takes you seriously and listens to you without bias or hidden agenda.
  • You can openly discuss issues that you are dealing with in a safe and private environment – without these being judged or evaluated and without having to prove anything to anyone.
  • You have a companion/confidant for your personal development, in general or during particularly challenging phases, from whom you can receive honest and professional feedback.

Why not start a conversation? Request a non-binding first consultation.

Yes… However, I believe my role as advisor is best defined by my clients who, over the years have called me “coach, confidant, counselor, trusted advisor, thinking partner, sparring partner, friend, and even secret weapon.”

Yet, there is a common foundation: my clients, like you, are busy and need someone who can listen, provide frank feedback, appropriate challenges, or insightful questions without an agenda, other than improving their business; someone who can fill a unique role that’s unlikely filled by an internal source.

Because the nature of my coaching is grounded in the reality of my client’s business, I don’t use a cookie-cutter methodology. I begin with what is – with a thorough diagnostic and planning process – then move toward what could be – via a customized program based on the specific needs of the individual and the organization.

I work comfortably and closely with the executive and his or her direct manager, as well as HR partners. Additionally, we involve the board in the process, at the executive’s request. I maintain complete confidentiality about my engagement as preferred by the coached executive.

What differentiates me from other executive coaches is my focus on the executive as an individual, and in the business context. How do they see themselves and what will it take for them to be effective in this role, in this company, in this industry? Together, we always start with what is and build towards what could be.

I help executives become more effective leaders that are better equipped to deal with the real challenges they face on the job.

Six to twelve months.

The kinds of issues/opportunities I engage don’t lend themselves to so-called quick fixes:

  • Increase the range, flexibility, and effectiveness of the client’s behavioral repertoire
  • Increase client’s ability to manage an organization
  • Maintain balance: manage tensions between organizational, family, community, and personal needs and demands
  • Manage career and advance professionally
  • Manage self and others in conditions of change, crisis, and conflict
  • Improve the effectiveness of the organization or team
  • Improve client’s psychological and social competencies

The common threads in these areas are dealing with ambiguity and complexity, and thinking differently in order to perform differently.

  • The next generation of executive leaders – Likely candidates for advancement. Individuals identified by organizational sponsors as leaders who would benefit from grooming and preparation to move from “high potential” to “ready now”.
  • Solid performers pursuing increased performance – Strong senior players who are performing well, and could be even stronger leaders with some coaching.
  • Executives in transition – Effective leaders experiencing change: something is about to be new and different… promotion, relocation, reorganization, or all of the above.
  • Leaders who have “hit a bump” – Executives with considerable corporate value and potential, yet need some assistance in their leadership performance.
  • Strong leaders who have “lost their smile” – Individuals who are performing well, but who have stopped experiencing joy in their work.

I’m not sure yet that you should, or shouldn’t.

Try to imagine a professional football team that recruits the best players, sends them to training camp to sharpen technical abilities, learn the strategies and master the plays to win, and then plays the entire season without a single practice or a coach. Hard to imagine, right? Team owners would never take that kind of risk. Yet, most business do exactly that.

Like that professional football team, if you’d like to leverage your strengths and better understand and manage your blindspots to improve your performance, we should start a conversation. Then we can mutually decide if it makes sense for us to work together.

We will meet as often as necessary. In addition to regular scheduled meetings, I work with clients on an unlimited basis with unrestricted access to me over the time we set aside for a project, subject only to scheduling around prior commitments that we have both made. I am also available during non-working hours and weekends, as needed.
“If you think the way you’re always thought, you’ll do what you’ve always done. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always had… or less.”
“If you make statements masquerading as questions, you’ll get answers masquerading as the truth.”
“Successful change begins with accepting the here-and-now, the what is.”
“Your very presence and your ability to make a connection with other people are fundamental to your success as a leader.”
“Become comfortable with being slightly uncomfortable.”
“In the same way that eyes are drawn to motion, the mind is drawn to activity, and the heart is distracted by anxiousness (anxiety).”
“Be willing to not get the credit for what you do.”
“You are becoming what you are doing. The rest is just talk.”
“Your questions are more intriguing than your answers.”
“Your momentum is taking you somewhere. You should notice.”

Why CollierBrown&Co.?

You have a star field of choices available to you…

You’re busy and need someone who can listen, provide frank feedback,
appropriate challenges, or insightful questions without judgment or an agenda,
other than improving your business; someone who can fill a unique role
that’s unlikely filled by an internal source.